Make you watch me

Netta’s ‘Toy’ is most-watched Eurovision song on YouTube

With 58 million views, Israeli contest winner overtakes two entries from 2010 in a far shorter time

Sue Surkes is The Times of Israel's environment reporter

Israel's Netta Barzilai performing 'Toy' in the first Eurovision 2018 semifinal, May 8, 2018. (Screen capture: YouTube)
Israel's Netta Barzilai performing 'Toy' in the first Eurovision 2018 semifinal, May 8, 2018. (Screen capture: YouTube)

Israel’s winning Eurovision song contest entry, “Toy,” has made history by attracting the most views ever on the competition’s YouTube channel.

“Netta beats them all: Record 58 million views on YouTube!” the official website of the competition declared Sunday.

On Saturday, Barzilai’s clucking sensation hit the 58 million viewings record, overtaking Jessy Matador’s “Allez Ola Ole” and Lena’s winning “Satellite,” both from 2010.

“Netta’s video was published on the 11th of March, which means Netta broke the previous record in just 76 days,” the site said.

Her semifinal performance garnered more than 15 million views and her grand final performance 25 million.

“All together, the music video of Toy has been watched over 100 million minutes. If you would have to watch the video all by yourself for that amount of time, you would be looking at a 190-year Toy marathon,” the site said.

The video was most popular in Spain, Germany and Russia, which together made up 30 percent of all viewings.

Israel has now won the contest four times, with “Abanibi” in 1978, “Hallelujah” in 1979 and Dana International’s “Diva” in 1998.

That puts it in fourth position in the league table of wins, on a par with the Netherlands, which has also won four times, although its last victory was 43 years ago.

Ireland has won seven times, most recently in 1996, and Sweden is just behind with six victories. France, Luxembourg and the UK follow in third position, each with five wins.

The Eurovision context has been going since 1956.

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